Freya walked into the briefing room with a cup of tea in her hands. She just came from eating a normal breakfast for once. She had a bowl of cereal, two pieces of toast and orange juice. The only thing that had been different was the milk had been blue and not white. She had to admit though it tasted better than normal milk. They served the toast with some kind of orange jelly that had orange peels in it. She passed on the jelly and ate the toast dry.

Toast nodded to her as she walked in. He was standing with the rest of the command crew. The squad leaders were standing on one side of the holo table with Sergeant Torres, Sergenat Lenis and Corporal Wilson on the other side. They were looking at a hologram of a space station.

From what she remembered from her recent training in space warfare, she knew it was one of the most popular kinds of space stations that poorer worlds used. It was basically a large asteroid that they had caught and moved into orbit around their world. First they would mine the asteroid, then they would use the mined areas for living and working quarters. Next, they took what they mined from the asteroid and used it to build shipyards and zero G factories around the asteroid.

To Freya it looked like a large, grey potato with some pins stuck into it. At the end of the pins were silver balls that were different sizes. The bigger balls were the shipyards while the smaller balls were the zero G factories. The pin part of the structures were zero G elevators that people and goods used to travel to and from the space station. The space station looked ugly but it was actually a very economical and stable design. Tactically it was a nightmare to defend because each of the factories was a potential entrance into the space station.

This space station had four other asteroids attached to the main asteroid that Freya assumed were part of their mining operation that supplied the station with water and materials that they would use to build their stuff. The other asteroids were attached with a single long pin or the zero G elevator to the main asteroid. From the way the station looked, it was not orbiting the planet but traveling in the same direction and slightly ahead of the planet.

“Magic, good - you’re here. Let’s get started.” Sergeant Torres said, looking up from the hologram. He reached down and tapped the table and the outer part of the space station became mostly transparent. The inside of the asteroid, Freya saw, was filled with tunnels that connected a bunch of caves together.

Sergeant Torres tapped the table again and six areas were suddenly glowing white. They were all over the place. He pointed at one of the glowing white areas in the middle of the core of the asteroid and a holographic number one appeared on it. “This is the command center.” He explained.

He tapped the table again and the rest of the areas suddenly had numbers beside them. “Two is the Combat Information Center (CIC). Three is the secondary bridge and four is damage control. Five is the main engine room and six is the secondary engine room.” He told them.

The second area was close but slightly behind the Command Center while the third area was on the other side of the Command Center. The fourth area was between the second and the fifth area which was at the far end of the asteroid. The sixth area was on the opposite side of the asteroid. They were all on different levels and there was no single way to get to each of the areas that was highlighted.

“Damn it, that’s annoying.” Corporal Wilson muttered.

“Magic,...” Sergeant Torres said, ignoring Corporal Wilson’s comment. “... I need you to find me a good place to park your ship in this area.” He told her, pointing at an area that was close to the end of the space station and in between the secondary bridge and the secondary engine room. The area he wanted her to land on was on the bottom of the space station.

“We will use the OTDS to land in our areas. One and I will land here and take the bridge. Once it is secured I’ll stay behind with two others while One will take the rest of the squad and destroy the CIC before coming back and reinforcing the command center.” He told them, highlighting the two areas.

He let the highlighted area fade before he continued. “Sergeant Leni will land here and take her squad to hit the secondary engine room and the secondary bridge, before moving downward and hitting the enlisted berthing. Don’t waste time on the secondary bridge and engine room. Blow it and move on. Because of the delay I expect this area to have the heaviest fighting.” He told them, highlighting an area at the top of the asteroid where he wanted third squad to land.

“It’s why I want the dropship in this area. I want all of your non-vital people that get zeroed out to join Leni in taking her objectives. Understood?” He asked them.

After the Command crew acknowledged him, he continued. “Ed, I want you to land here and take the Damage Control Center before moving back to take the officers’ berthing. Once that is secured, wait for orders. I’m going to need you to reinforce one of the other squads. My plan is that you’ll most likely join Leni in her assault on the enlisted berthing, but I want you loose to back up any squad that may be having trouble taking their objectives. Corporal Wilson will land here and go right for the engine room. I want that place secured as soon as possible. He will stay there and defend the engine room until the end of the mission. Questions?” He asked them.

When he didn’t get any immediate questions he turned to Freya. “You got my landing zone yet?”

Not wanting to admit that she hadn’t even looked yet, but had listened in on the briefing, she gave the hologram a brief look. “I was looking at this Sergeant.” She told him pointing at the base of the zero G elevator of a factory. It was in the area where he wanted the ship and the more she looked at it the more she liked it.

“It is close to the stairs that go down to the middle deck. From there anyone who respawns can take that middle deck to access the stairs that lead to any of the objectives in the forward part of the space station.” She told him pointing out all the stairs that led directly to the various objectives. The closest one was the one that led towards the enlisted berthing.

“You’ll have to fly between the two asteroids, here and here, then make it past this part on the station here.” He told her.

He pointed out the most likely path she was going to have to take. She silently cursed as she realized that she was going to have to fly down the space station for about ten seconds close enough to expose her to enemy anti-ship defence. That was the worst way to get into position to deploy her ship. The best way was a direct approach right towards the target which would put the nose of her ship towards the space station instead of the side of her ship. It would be a lot harder for her to be hit if she went directly towards the space station. In a fight, ten seconds was a long time to have the side of her ship exposed. She bit her lip as she looked at the path.

“If you think you can do it, that is a great position. But you’re putting your ship at a lot of risk to get there. I trust you, but I want you to look over another approach and see if you can find me a safer place to deploy. If you think you can’t do it after that, then we’ll use that position to deploy the ship.” He told her gently.

“Yes, Sergeant.” She replied as she looked over the hologram.

She lost herself as she looked over different positions and different approaches towards them. She found five different positions she could land and deploy in, but nothing was better than the one she picked out at first. The other positions would mean anyone who respawned running a lot longer and down various different stairs to get back into the fight. There were a lot of ways she could think for the enemy to ambush them while they were en route back to the battle. Worse, she could see several ways for the enemy to discover her ship’s position.

“Magic.” Toast said to her, touching her shoulder.

“Hmm?” She replied, not looking away from her notes. She was in the process of trying to reduce her flight path across the station when he touched her.

“Sergeant Torres wants your landing area.” He told her. She looked up and realized that the rest of the platoon was filling into the debriefing room. The rest of the command crew was looking at her.

“Just pick the best one and we’ll go with that.” Toast told her softly, so the others wouldn’t hear him.

“Okay.” She said looking down at her notes again. With a sigh she looked back up. “The first position is the best one.” She told Sergeant Torres. “I can reduce my flight path exposure to six seconds. The rest of the positions put my ship a long way away from any of the objectives and the risk that it’s discovered gets higher the safer path I take.” She told him, feeling nervous and frustrated at the same time. Then she outlined the other paths and shared her fears on why her ship could be discovered and how the marines who were returning to the fight might get ambushed along the way. When she was done the rest of the platoon was already in their seats waiting on them. Sergeant Torres said nothing for a few seconds before he nodded to her.

“Okay, we’ll go with the first position then.” Sergeant Torres told her, tilting his head sideways slightly. “Everyone to your seats and let’s get this briefing over with. We don’t have much time until the mission starts and we have a lot to go over.”

Freya sat down beside Toast and nervously sat through the briefing. Sergeant Torres outlined the plan then had each of the objective leaders stand up and go over their part of the plan. Toast had to reach over and put his hand on her knee to keep it from bouncing with nervous energy. She was very worried about her decision. She felt terrified, like she was putting the mission at risk, but she couldn’t find a better way.

She ran plans over her in head on how to protect her ship from discovery and how to protect the marines on their way back to the fight, but she couldn’t think of any way to do that without using a lot of marines that would be needed in the fight. She ran and reran the numbers looking for a better path on her tablet but she came up with nothing else.

“Stop worrying.” Toast whispered to her as Ed stood up to go over his part in the mission. Toast put his hand over her knee again to stop it from bouncing. “Everything you’re thinking, Torres has already gone over in his head. He would never let us go through with your plan unless he thought there was a better one. You gave him very valid reasons why you thought you had to do what you want to do, and he must think it’s the best plan in this situation. Let it go. Do your job and let him do his. Oorah?” He whispered to her.

“Oorah.” She whispered back. She sighed and put her tablet away. She did feel a bit better she realized. Toast was right. Torres had to have gone over all of her plans and still picked her recommendation. He had a lot more skills, mods, and even experience in making plans than she did. She turned and smiled at Toast, showing how grateful she felt for reminding her that, while she was good, Torres had to be better or he wouldn’t be a sergeant in charge of a platoon.

“Any questions?” Sergeant Torres asked as Ed sat down. There were a few. Some of the questions were even relevant, unlike Dog’s question about if they could eat any of the food from the station after the fight. He looked so confused as the rest of the platoon laughed at him that it made Freya laugh even harder.

“Let's hope we’re not there that long.” Sergeant Torres replied, sounding amused. “Okay people, form up on me.” He told them, heading towards the door.

He led them out of the barracks to the lobby door. “I’m getting us a hallway built.” He told the rest of the platoon as he unlocked the door. “This walking all the way outside for the lobby is for greenies.”

He waited for the nervous laughter to die down before he raised his fist. “For the Iron Hand!” He yelled savagely, before he turned around and, without waiting for a reply, stepped into the light. The rest of the platoon yelled out their battle cry as they ran into the light following him.

Freya found herself alone in the hanger as she walked through the light. One and Done were using their OTDS since they could not use their Mechs on the space station. It was the first time she had entered the hanger without them since she had joined the platoon. It made her feel strangely vulnerable and lonely.

“Magic!” Diaz, her crew chief, yelled out. Freya immediately reached up and felt for her helmet and sighed in relief when she felt it. Diaz saw Freya’s reaction and laughed as she walked towards the confused marine.

“This is why I’m in the Navy and you’re in the Marines.” Diaz said, tapping her helmet with her knuckles. “Only one of us is smart enough to know that their helmet is on.”

Freya smiled and shook her head. “I’ll have you know that I have a master’s degree now.” Freya said trying to act superior but realized it fell flat. The other woman was a master engineer with a doctorate. She cringed as she realized how horribly lame her comeback was.

“A smart Marine, how original.” Diaz said dryly, ignoring how stupid Freya’s comment was. “When are you going to come over to my side and let me buy you a drink?”

“You just want to show me off to your friends.” Freya said with a smile.

“Well, yeah I do.” Diaz said seriously. “Saw the tournament stream at the bar about a month ago when it came out. You know they show you in some of the clips. You are awesome, by the way. I love the way you had that Colonel arrested. It still makes me laugh. I can’t wait for this next stream.”

“They released the stream already?” Freya asked, surprised. “I thought they were going to wait to do that until after the first real-world mission.”

“They only released it here on the ship. We’re not allowed to talk to anyone outside of the Monarch about it though.” She replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“Wait. The mission was yesterday. What do you mean you saw it last month?” Freya said frowning.

“Time dilation. It took me a month to rebuild your ship. You’re welcome by the way. Got a level from it though.” Diaz replied.

“Why didn’t you print it? And is it going to cost me anything?” Freya asked, suddenly realizing that she hadn’t thought to check if the Marines were going to charge her to rebuild her ship.

“First, I would never just print a ship. That would waste all those precious E-points. Second, you already paid for all the reprinting you are ever going to need while you’re in the military. It was factored in with the price of your ship. Besides, they expect you to wreck your ship once in a while. Just don’t make it a habit and you’ll be fine.” Diaz said, putting her arm around Freya.

“Let’s get this preflight check off done. You have a mission to do and I have a bet to win.” Diaz said, pulling Freya forward.

“What bet?” Freya asked her crew chief. Diaz just smiled and kept walking.

“Seriously, did you bet on me? Wait, did you bet on me or against me?” Freya asked her. Diaz just smiled mysteriously and kept on walking.

Diaz walked her around the dropship while Freya grumbled and inspected her ship. Once they were done on the outside Diaz walked her up the ramp into the ship. This time Freya didn’t need prompting and kissed the nameplate just inside the ship. She did notice that it said it was a second printing.

“Thought you didn’t print the ship.” Freya said, pointing at the nameplate.

“It always says that when a ship is rebuilt.” Diaz said, giving Freya a ‘what can you do look’.

“You serious?” Freya asked, not sure if the other woman was making fun of her or what she said was true.

“I guess they say that because all the parts were printed before we assembled the ship by hand. Anyway, I rebuilt this ship by hand. We do it that way so that if we are ever in the real world and don’t have the ability to print something as large as your ship we have the know-how to do so.” Diaz said, after she too kissed the nameplate.

“Oh, well. Thanks.” Freya said, feeling uncomfortable.

“Part of what you pay me for.” Diaz said with a smile, as Freya stepped into a pod to despawn.

“Wait, I pay you?” Freya asked, surprised, as Diaz closed the door.

“Marines. Can you people be any more stupider?”Diaz said, looking through the transparent door. “I’m Navy, of course you don’t pay me.”

“Oh, sorry.” Freya said to her empty cockpit, as she had already despawned and respawned into her cockpit. She quickly sat down, brought up her cameras and found Diaz walking out of the ship.

“Hey, sorry about that.” Freya told the other woman over the radio.

“I can’t wait to get you drunk. I’m gonna get you to do all sorts of funny freaking stuff.” Diaz said, sounding amused. “I keep forgetting you’re so new that you still glow green from basic.”

“Like you could out-drink a marine.” Freya said, as she started on her cockpit preflight check offs.

“Oh honey, it's on.” Diaz said, turning around to smile at Freya through her camera. Freya chuckled at the look that Diaz was giving her as she started printing her clone and powered up her engines making sure they were in warm-up mode before she turned them on.

“Monarch, Marine RDS B127.” Freya called over the radio.

“Go ahead, RDS B127.” The controller replied.

“Monarch, Marine RDS B127, request permission to disembark.” Freya asked, as she tilted the nose of her ship downward so that it was pointed out the hanger door.

“Permission granted, RDS B127, in ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.... Go! Go! Go!” The Controller yelled the count down as the Monarch dropped out of light speed right next to the space station.

Freya took a deep breath and strangely, now that she was in the cockpit, she was calm. She grinned and boosted her ship out of the hangar. She saw her target as soon as she pulled out of the hangar bay. It looked just like the hologram had shown it. A big potato with pins and four potatoes attached to it haphazardly. All around Freya she saw OTDS being fired out of the Monarch and passing over her, heading down towards the planet below her. There were thousands of OTDS visible for a couple of seconds before they got too small to see. Above her the Monarch raced over her and into orbit over the planet.

Her new sensors screamed at her as the space station finally spotted her. The sensors plotted out several routes to avoid the enemy fire. Freya followed their suggestion as the guns on the nose of her ship opened fire on incoming missiles. It took her a long four seconds to get behind one of the asteroid mines to hide from the massive incoming fire. She still had to out-maneuver the missiles but it was a lot easier without her having to worry about the lines of enemy energy and ballistic weapons.

She raced towards the mine, boosting her ship to eighty percent power as she dodged the blast waves of the missiles. Eleven seconds later, she was coming up on the massive mine. She stayed low over the asteroid as she circled around it to get to the bigger asteroid that was the space station. Before she knew it she was passing over the imaginary line where the enemy could get an angle to fire at her. Her new armor took several direct hits but it did its job and the ship was not harmed.

This was the worst part of the mission. She had six seconds before she could get below the enemy anti-ship weapons systems. She boosted her ship to over ninety percent and corkscrewed to dissipate the hits over the armor. She changed her vector several times as she avoided the heavy fire from the space station. She kept her ship in the flight window as best as possible to reduce the time where she would be exposed to the guns.

Freya’s universe narrowed itself down to just her sensors as she pushed her ship to the maximum speed and maneuverability and the seconds counted down. She read her sensors and reacted. Without looking she knew that her armor was failing, but there was nothing she could do except to twist her ship further to try to avoid most of the enemy guns. For six seconds Freya reacted faster and more accurately than she had ever before.

Then the enemy guns fell silent as she passed by the invisible line that they could get an angle to fire on her, but Freya was not out of danger yet. She was going nearly a hundred percent full power as she neared her chosen landing zone. She spun her ship around and boosted to full power trying to slow down. The ship sensors screamed at her, warning her that she was pushing her ship past what it was supposed to do. She bit her lip as parts of her armor broke off and flew onward towards the emptiness of space.

Then the blinking yellow and orange lights started turning green again as she slowed down. She checked her navigation screen and adjusted the boost a bit more to move closer to her landing zone. She tasted copper in her mouth as the ship fell towards the grey rock below her. She vaguely noted that she had bitten her lip as she leaned sideways trying to get the ship to move in the correct direction.

She could see the metal framework of the zero G elevator coming up a bit too fast as she slowed down. Unable to slow down enough, she jerked the yoke to spin her ship at the last second and spiraled around the metal framework. She groaned and yanked on the yoke, fighting the ship, as the station got closer and closer way too fast for her comfort. She activated her landing struts through her Personal AI as the deck came up. She barely noticed that she used it as she focused on not crashing her ship.

She was so focused on her sensors that she was surprised when her ship landed hard and bounced up away from the space station before settling down on it again. She checked her damage reports and sighed with relief. Her landing struts showed some very minor damage from the hard landing but nothing that would affect the ship’s deployment. She hit the button to deploy her active camouflage and waited.

She looked from her screens and out the window of her ship as she waited to see if the enemy knew where she was. As she did so she saw a flock of OTDS fly into the station just over the horizon. She looked down at her sensors to see if her respawn pods were active and noted only two were. She noted the time and realized they must have been shot down on the way towards the space station. As she watched, another pod activated, telling her that one of the OTDS had failed and crashed into the station.

She looked away from her sensors and out the window again, waiting to see if they noticed her landing. Her heart stopped as an alarm sounded. Looking down she saw several enemy close-in support craft heading right towards her location. Reaching out, she grabbed the yoke but stopped herself from powering up the engines.

She let her hands fall from the yoke and watched as the ships got closer. She smirked as she noted that they were Mosquitoes. She knew that there was no way she could evade the enemy close-in support ships. Her best bet was to stay where she was and hope that they hadn’t seen her. She waited for her fate with her hands in her lap as the ships got closer. She noted that they were not on a direct path, but they were going to pass very close by. She hoped that meant they hadn’t spotted her landing. It could be some kind of tactic that she couldn’t think of, so she didn’t get her hopes up.

She got a notification that another pod was in use as the ships on her sensors got closer. When they got close enough, she looked up from her sensors to the window as the ships closed in on her location. A couple of seconds later she saw them flash by. She looked down at her sensors as the Mosquitoes passed her by. She held her breath as she watched them on the screen, waiting for them to turn back around, but they never did. They kept on going. She waited for a few more seconds before taking a deep breath. She’d done it. She’d made it to the space station. She looked upward for a second, wiggling her cramped fingers, before she looked back down and hit the button to download herself into her waiting clone.

She opened her pod door and went right to the locker. The ship’s heaters were working on full blast to keep the coldness of space out of the ship. Naked and shivering Freya hurried to the locker and equipped her armor. She felt warmer as soon as her armor was on, but she still felt really cold. She pulled out her weapons and slung them over her shoulder. She was using her Asy Minor as her main gun and the GMZ 127 as her backup weapon. She made sure her pistol was on her hip and her knife was on the other side in its sheath. She checked her backpack to make sure all her special supplies were there before she turned away, satisfied.

Ready, she looked around at the still printing people in the pods. The timers told her that they still had a few more minutes to cook so she turned away, lifted the hatch in the floor and climbed down the short ladder to the airlock. She closed the hatch and waited for the air vents to cycle the air back into the ship’s tanks.

The airlock was a small black room that was large enough for her to crouch in. The only light came from a tiny, blinking red light. She knew the specs called for two light-armored people or one medium or heavy armored person. She waited on the light to change to green. Once it turned green she reached down and hit the button to unlock the door to the outside. Taking a deep breath she pushed the door open. It sprung open easily and Freya dropped down through the door.

She floated down in the microgravity of the space station. She braced her legs and landed easily on the ground. She pulled out her small gun and looked around. Behind her, on the other side of her ship, she saw the towering, metal framework of the zero G elevator. Her gaze rested on it for a few seconds, before she tore her eyes away from it and looked for any indication of any enemy troops on the outside of the space station. She didn’t see any.

She then ran/leaped out from under the dropship. She looked up for any enemies but she didn’t see any. What she did see was the smaller asteroid above her taking up most of her view. It looked gigantic from where she was standing. She sighed in appreciation at the sight. She had to force herself to look away and get back on task. The others would be spawning soon and she didn’t want them to see her gawking like a tourist.

She ran/leaped towards the elevator, trying to minimise kicking up the grey dust that was all over the space station. The elevator was about fifty feet away and in the microgravity she made it there in seconds. She looked up and up at the metal framework of the elevator. It went on for roughly three miles until it met its other anchor on the other asteroid. The framework was made from metal and a clear, easily torn, fabric. Freya pulled out her knife and cut a large hole in the fabric and pulled it aside. As she did so something huge and moving very fast sped past her. She froze. She hadn’t realized that the elevator would still be working. She thought that it would have been shut down when they attacked.

She was still trying to figure out what to do when Dog came bouncing up to her. “Hey Magic.” He said over the radio. “Whatcha waiting on?”

“The elevator is still working. I’m trying to figure out how to get past without being crushed when they send something down. You have any ideas?” She asked him.

“You got any grenades?” He asked her.

“Yes.” Freya said cautiously, knowing what he was thinking. “If we blow the elevator, won't that bring the rest of it down on top of us?”

“In this gravity?” Dog scoffed. He pulled off his backpack and started pulling out some grenades. With a mental shrug, Freya did the same. Dog had her set the timers on her grenades for two minutes then they put them on all the metal beams. As soon as they were done they raced back towards the ship with Freya praying that Dog was right about not bringing the elevator down on their heads. It was only when she reached her ship that she realized that blowing the elevator like they were might draw attention to her ship.

“Too late now.” She thought to herself as the grenades went off and the metal beams broke in a shower of fragments. She hid behind her landing strut and waited until the last of the metal shrapnel passed her by, then looked back at the elevator. Besides all the metal beams being broken, the elevator shaft was still in place. It was just floating in place.

“Okay, we should be good to go.” Dog told her. Freya looked at him, stunned.

“What do you mean? Nothing happened. It’s still standing.” Freya replied angrily.

Dog chuckled over the radio, making her madder. “It has way too much mass to move. What will happen is that they will register that something is wrong with the elevator and stop sending stuff down it. Let’s go. I want to play.” He told her as he ran/leaped towards the broken elevator.

She was just starting after Dog when she saw someone else getting out of the airlock. It took her a few seconds to register it was Petey. He immediately started after Dog, seemingly unconcerned at the miles of metal hanging over his head. Freya chased after him, but quickly lost ground as he raced over the space station surface. When she finally caught up to him he was examining the broken elevator shaft.

“They were still sending stuff down it?” He asked Dog, who had just pulled his head back from inside the elevator shaft.

“Yeah, blew the beams to stop them.” Dog replied.

“Cool.” Petey replied, nodding. “We waiting on someone?”

“Nah, just checking if they had a package in the pipe. It doesn’t look like it though. We should be ok.” Dog replied.

“Okay. You go first. I’ll go second and Magic you pull the rear.” Petey said.

“Don’t you think this will draw attention to my ship?” She asked Petey.

“Nah. They’ll register something got broken on the elevator but they won't know how bad it is until they send something to check it out. That won’t happen until after we are long gone.” Pete told her. Freya hoped he was right as Dog climbed into the elevator. Once he was through, Petey followed him. As soon as he was through, Freya took a deep breath and followed him in.